Assignments

In addition to the weekly readings, there will be two written assignments.

Project 1

You will be given a paper that lacks title, authors, and abstract. Your assignment is to read the paper and to write a short abstract to describe the paper. Be sure to identify the salient points of the paper and to emphasize the "big picture."

Project 2

Using one of the papers we have discussed in class, write a short proposal for a summer project describing what follow-up experiments you would perform. Design an experiment to help support the authors' interpretations or to test a question that arises from their work. (Hint: if you are stuck, address points that the authors make in the discussion section.) By Session 9, you will submit (by email) your choice of paper and the general question upon which you will focus your proposal. Submit the written proposal by Session 13.

An example student project 2 proposal, based on the following paper is included:

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